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Review
. 2016 Jul 1;3(3):11.
doi: 10.3390/children3030011.

Putting Children's Sleep Problems to Bed: Using Behavior Change Theory to Increase the Success of Children's Sleep Education Programs and Contribute to Healthy Development

Sarah Blunden  1 , Tessa Benveniste  2 , Kirrilly Thompson  3
Affiliations
Review

Putting Children's Sleep Problems to Bed: Using Behavior Change Theory to Increase the Success of Children's Sleep Education Programs and Contribute to Healthy Development

Sarah Blunden et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

Sleep is critical for the healthy development of children, yet most children simply don't get enough. Whilst school based sleep education programs have been developed for parents and their children, they have had mixed success. We consider how use of behavior change theory in existing school-based sleep education programs can be improved by applying and apply a broader model to these programs. We find that the mixed success of school-based sleep education programs may be due to a plausible but misleading assumption that simply increasing information about the importance of sleep and the risks of insufficient and/or inefficient sleep will necessarily result in improved sleep behaviors. We identify the potential benefits of using behavior change theory in the development of sleep education programs but in particular, there is a need for theories incorporate the multiple biological, environmental and social impacts on children's sleep. Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological model is presented to illustrate how one such behavior change theory could significantly improve the success of sleep education programs and ultimately support the healthy development of children.

Keywords: behaviour theory; children’s sleep; prevention; sleep education.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proposed adaptation of the stepped care model for sleep education.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Bronfenbrenners Ecological Model. From Nielsen, J.N. (2011) [36].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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